An Ounce of Prevention

11 June 2018

It's only days until Team BRIT's biggest ever race in the Aston Martin Le Mans Festival at Le Mans. Hear from our race engineer Al Locke on the preparation for this milestone moment.......

We're racing in the Aston Martin support race at Le Mans in less than a week. I've lost count of the number of people who've asked me “So, are you guys ready for your race at Le Mans?”. My answer is the same – no, we're not, we won't be until the car is sat on the grid at La Sarthe. I have a huge list of the things we need to do to be ready for this race; it's the most prestigious and competitive event we've entered to date, and we're still finding our feet with the setup and reliability of the car. We don't have the time or resources to complete everything on the list, so for us it's a question of prioritising the tasks we think will give us the most advantage, the biggest bang for our buck.

A big part of the list is compliance – safety equipment, ride heights, making sure the car conforms to the technical regulations. This part of the list is non-negotiable and is therefore the highest priority. After that comes some simple things like sponsor logos (also non-negotiable, we wouldn't be here without the incredible support of our commercial partners), the tasks that improve reliability, and then performance enhancement. After a long few weeks of thinking, tweaking and testing the car is now on her way to Le Mans. So are we ready yet? Of course not, but with a fantastic team behind us there's two things we are ready for. Believing and achieving.

"Never think that success is down to your own performance alone. If you start listening only to yourself you take the first step back towards the bottom. The flowers of victory belong in many vases." - Michael Schumacher.